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Elizabeth Surr
Elizabeth Surr (née Grabham) (1825/6 - 1901) was an educational reformer.Jane Martin, ‘Surr , Elizabeth (b. 1825/6, d. in or after 1898)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48591 Born in Rochford, Essex on 4 December 1825, she was the oldest of the 15 children of John Grabham, MD, a surgeon. In 1852 she married Joseph Surr, a silk manufacturer and merchant in the City of London. In 1876 she was elected to the London School Board as a representative Finsbury. She believed that girls' education required women's guidance and care, and was in favour of secular teaching and unsectarian Bible instruction. She was re-elected in 1879, and stood down at the 1882 election. Featured in a Punch cartoon, November 26 1881 p. 249 Her books included: Pleasant Rhymes for Little Readers, or Jottings for Juveniles, London, Houlston & Wight, 1866 (pseudonym: Josephine) Good out of Evil: A Tale for Children, by Mrs. Surr, London, Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1877 Sea Birds, and the Story of their Lives, London 1880 Our Children’s Pets, London Pretty Pictures for Little Eyes, London (probably written by Elizabeth Surr in about 1870) An Account of Work Among the Victorian Poor in 1857-1859, by Mrs. Elizabeth Surr, One of the Very Early Members of the London School Board The Maid of Lonsdale Square; or, Truth Triumphant. Dedicated to the Servants of Islington by the author of ‘Uncle Ben’. Seely, Islington Green, 1884. (also by “Josephine”), 15 page poem. She encouraged the children to keep dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, seagulls, a kangaroo rat, frogs, garden insects, and a Belgian hare that strayed into neighbor gardens. She bought birds from bird-fanciers and put them into a large aviary, except the larks, which always were released. She made up little poems for her children, which were later published. She gave Sunday afternoon Bible lessons, including having a tame grass snake represent the Fall. While representing Finsbury on the London School Board, she and her friend /colleague Helen Taylor (John Stuart Mill’s step-daughter) crashed a men-only banquet given by London’s Lord Mayor for the School Board at the Guildhall. She raided the St. Paul’s Industrial School, found child abuse, reported it to the Board, then used a temporary absence of the Board’s majority opponents to authorize an official investigation of the School, eventually closing it down. She later arranged for 15 of the boys to emigrate to Canada. She sponsored resolutions to close public playgrounds on Sunday and to make moral education part of the curriculum. While her health permitted, she ran an adult education/literacy program in her home and at a night school. (family biography) She emigrated with her family to San Diego, California in 1883 after Joseph lost his fortune on the Exchange. She continued her work with adult literacy and leafleted sailors at the port of San Diego. She died of breast cancer there on 9 November 1901 and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetary, San Diego CA. John Brown, History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties with selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period of growth and achievement. (Volume 2) (1922) She wrote a number of books, one of which, 'Stories about Cats' can be downloaded here https://archive.org/details/storiesaboutcat00surrgoog. References Category:Members of the School Board for London